Pretty Boy Floyd

Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd (February 3, 1904–October 22, 1934 buried in Akins, Oklahoma) was a notorious American bankrobber and alleged killer, romanticized by the press and also by Woody Guthrie in The Ballad of Pretty Boy Floyd.

Related Topics:
February 3 - 1904 - October 22 - 1934 - Akins - Oklahoma - Woody Guthrie

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Floyd was born in rural Georgia on February 3, 1904. His family moved within a year to Oklahoma, where they worked a farm that never generated much cash. At the age of 17, Floyd married Wilma Hargrove. The popular history says that Floyd committed his first crime when he struck down a sheriff's deputy who had been rude to Wilma, but contemporary sources agree that Floyd simply needed a way to make ends meet.

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TIME magazine (22 October 1934) mentions a robbery of $350 in pennies from a local post office as his first known crime. He was 18 years old at the time. Three years later, he was busted for a payroll robbery in St. Louis and served three years in prison. When paroled, he vowed that he would never see the inside of another prison. He did not, however, go straight. Partnering with more established criminals in the Kansas City underworld, he committed a series of bank robberies over the next several years; it was during this period that he earned the nickname "Pretty Boy". Like his contemporary Baby Face Nelson, Floyd hated his nickname.

Related Topics:
TIME - 22 October - 1934 - Kansas City - Baby Face Nelson

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Their string of crimes hit a hiccup in Sylvania, Ohio, where they were caught in the midst of a bank robbery and Floyd was sentenced to 15 years. However, he escaped on his way to prison and rebuilt his gang. In the years that followed, he was blamed for a long string of bank robberies. The popular legend holds that he was not, in fact, responsible for all of these, and that his name was being attached to robberies committed by others. In the words of Woody Guthrie, "Every crime in Oklahoma was added to his name." It is possible that Floyd and other criminals might have become more active as a result, since Floyd would be blamed regardless of what he did and regardless of what others did.

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Floyd would hide between crimes in towns near the one in which he had grown up, protected by the locals. The popular legend says that they did this out of love for his generosity and their hatred of the banks, which were at that time foreclosing on many farms. However, the contemporary press claimed that he simply bribed them for their silence.

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With his partner George Birdwell, Floyd robbed the banks in Earlsboro, Konawa, Maud, Morris, Shamrock, Tahlequah, and on December 12, 1931, two banks in one day at Castle and Paden, Oklahoma. Bank insurance rates doubled, and the governor of Oklahoma placed a $56,000 reward on Floyd's head.

Related Topics:
George Birdwell - December 12 - 1931 - Oklahoma

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The man was also accused of participating in the Kansas City Massacre, a shootout that resulted in the deaths of four lawmen in 1933. He denied being there, but the authorities and the press were sure he was involved.

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After narrowly escaping ambush by the FBI several times, Floyd was killed on October 22, 1934, when the FBI agents shot him near East Liverpool, Ohio. As is the case with many aspects of Floyd's life, the circumstances surrounding his final moments are disputed. According to the FBI, Floyd died cursing his killers to the end. However, Chester Smith, the sharpshooter who felled Floyd, stated in a 1984 interview that after he had (deliberately) wounded, but not killed, Floyd, Melvin Purvis questioned him briefly and then ordered him shot at point-blank range.

Related Topics:
FBI - October 22 - 1934 - East Liverpool, Ohio - Chester Smith - 1984 - Melvin Purvis

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Floyd's body was placed on public display in Sallislaw, Oklahoma. His funeral was attended by between twenty and fourty thousand people, and remains the largest funeral in Oklahoma history.

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Floyd earned his nickname from Midwestern prostitutes because he obsessively combed his greasy pompadour. He hated it enough that, according to legend, he killed two men just for calling him "Pretty Boy," and his dying words were "I'm Charles Arthur Floyd!"

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Five years after Floyd's death, Woody Guthrie wrote a ballad romanticizing his life of crime. This song has been performed by many of the great figures in country and folk music, and was recorded by Bob Dylan on the Smithsonian's tribute to Guthrie in 1988. The song plays up Floyd's generosity to the poor, and contains the very famous line

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"Some will rob you with a six-gun,

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And some with a fountain pen."

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Many books have been written about Pretty Boy Floyd, including a semi-fictionalized biography by Pulitzer Prize-winner Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana in 1994.

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There were also two hair metal bands called Pretty Boy Floyd, a Canadian band that has broken up and an American band who are still together. See: Pretty Boy Floyd (American) and Pretty Boy Floyd (Canadian). Guthrie's song has also been covered by The Byrds on their album Sweetheart of the Rodeo and folk-punk band Ghost Mice.

Related Topics:
Hair metal - Pretty Boy Floyd (American) - Pretty Boy Floyd (Canadian) - The Byrds - Sweetheart of the Rodeo - Ghost Mice

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Floyd was mentioned in the novel The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, in which the mother of the Joad children claims that she knew Floyd's mother and is afraid that her son Tom might become bitter and violent like Floyd.

Related Topics:
The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

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